Dairy Free Me

Living without dairy and eggs

South East Asia

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

We found lots of Chinese stir-fry dishes with rice in Hong Kong. With meat, fish or tofu and vegetables. As a big cosmopolitan city you can probably find all sorts of cuisines but we mostly ate in small canteen-style cafes in Kowloon. They don't always speak English but sometimes the menus have pictures which helps!

Watch out for...

For some reason (perhaps from the British influence?) condensed milk is popular. This can appear where you least expect it, such as in soup!

Malaysia

Malaysia

Lots of curries with rice, very rarely containing dairy but more likely to have coconut milk. There were also a lot of noodle soup dishes made with rice noodles. Beef rendang was a favourite of ours, which is a slow cooked beef dish with coconut, lemongrass and chilli. It can be very spicy!

Most places had satay - marianaded meat on skewers with a peanut dipping sauce. In one of the hotels we stayed in I had a satay cooking lesson. It is definitely dairy-free although I was quite shocked at how much sugar went into the sauce! (That's why it tastes so good...)

Watch out for...

Nasi lemak is a common breakfast dish consisting of coconut rice with a spicy sauce, and various other garnishes including egg.

Vietnam

Vietnam

In Vietnam you will find lots of rice, rice-noodles and stiry-fry type dishes. Similar to Chinese cuisine but slightly more aromatic with the use of mint and other herbs. A popular breakfast dish is pho which is made with rice-noodles in beef or chicken broth. You normally add your own meat, beansprouts, chilli, mint and fish sauce to taste.

Watch out for...

Most of the noodles are made of rice, but sometimes they are egg-noodles.

Cambodia

Cambodia

The food in Cambodia is similar to Thailand but less spicy. There are stir-fries and coconut milk based curries, with fish sauce and lemongrass. Everything comes with rice or rice-noodles. The local Kampot pepper is used to flavour dishes rather than chilli.

Watch out for...

Amok is a steamed fish dish which contains egg.